Link To Wpb Seen As Vital To Toll Road

October 13, 1985|By Fred Lowery, Transportation Writer

While the Expressway Authority decides whether to move ahead with a high- speed toll road across central Palm Beach County, a study of links to downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach International Airport is nearing completion.

The downtown link, east of Interstate 95, must be considered an integral part of any east-west system, said authority Chairman Dennis Koehler.

``They are a set,`` he said.

The study was an outgrowth of efforts by the county and West Palm Beach to develop a cooperative downtown road-access system to handle the impact of increased office development downtown.

It is being jointly funded by West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County and the Expressway Authority.

Although it will be the end of the month before consultants are ready to report their findings to the authority, Lukehart said they have a pretty good general idea of what a potential downtown link should look like.

He envisions the combined expressway spanning I-95 near the southern tip of Clear Lake, then swinging north toward Okeechobee Boulevard before running east to connect with the downtown West Palm Beach access road system, already in the early stages of development.

``Access to I-95 would be made through a system of spur roads coming off the expressway directly to the interstate,`` Lukehart said.

Those spur roads should also provide access to the airport without having to get on and off I-95, said West Palm Beach City Engineer Ron Schutta. The expressway, downtown access and airport access must be considered as parts of an integrated system.

Where the expressway would end and the downtown connector would begin, though, is a decision for another day, Schutta said.

Engineers and consultants have explored a number of options, including running an elevated highway as far east as U.S. 1, he said, but have not arrived at a conclusion.

The most likely downtown access routes, however, are either just south of Okeechobee Boulevard or between Okeechobee Boulevard and Jessamine Street, currently the one-way pair connecting the Clear Lake area with the Royal Park bridge to Palm Beach, Schutta said.

``That could be a lot less complicated for local access than going along the south side of Okeechobee and trying to get across,`` he said. ``You would let Okeechobee and Jessamine serve as service roads.``